Barack Obama laments ‘evil’ Aurora shootings as suspect due in court

Barack Obama has visited the site of the Dark Knight Rises screening massacre in Aurora, Colorado, and paid tribute to the victims, as suspect James Holmes is due in court later today charged with 12 counts of murder.

A well wisher places 12 crosses, one for each victim, across the street from the Century 16 cinema where the shootings took place (Picture: AP)

Mr Obama visited the injured in hospital and paid tribute to the strength of the community, as they face another test when the 24-year-old postgraduate student appears at the Arapahoe County Justice Centre.

The hearing will be shown on TV.

Mr Obama called the shootings ‘an evil act’ and, after comforting the bereaved families said he ‘came to them not so much as president as I do as a father and as a husband’.

‘I confessed to them words were inadequate but my main task was to serve as a representative of the entire country and say we are thinking about them at this moment each and every day,’ he continued.

Mr Obama also offered hope to the families of those still receiving treatment for their injuries sustained last Thursday night, saying: ‘You see young people who have come in and just two days ago or 36 hours ago or even 24 hours ago, it wasn’t certain whether they would make it.

‘Now suddenly their eyes are open, they are alert, and they are talking and it reminds you that even in the darkest of days… life continues.’

James Holmes will appear at court charged with a dozen counts of murder relating to the attack during a packed screening of The Dark Knight Rises in the Century 16 cinema. It also left nearly 60 people injured.

The youngest victim was six-year-old Veronica Moser, whose mother, 25-year-old Ashley Moser, remains in a critical condition with gunshot wounds to the throat and abdomen.

When she was told her daughter Veronica had died following the shootings, she broke down in tears and screamed, ‘I want to die,’ according to relatives.

Ashley’s grandmother Jean Moser apparently told the Boston Herald: ‘She took it very badly. I know she was shocked.’

Holmes, who was studying for a PHD, was said to have dyed his hair red and called himself Joker in reference to Batman’s nemesis.The shootings follow months of ‘calculation and deliberation’ and a ‘high volume’ of weapons were delivered to him, police said.Holmes was arrested in a car park behind the cinema in Aurora, Colorado, on Friday, dressed in black, and carrying an assault rifle, shotgun and pistol.